As Wendi Deng knows, there is one area in which Wallis Simpson's fatuous but ultimately prescient, "you can never be too thin," mantra doesn't apply. Precious rocks. Cleverer than the late Duchess ever was, Deng took her place in the front row at the Chanel couture show, next to Anna Wintour and the latter's daughter, Bea Schaffer. Or rather Deng and her spectacular emerald bracelet did.

We're talking half a dozen or so very- fat-indeed emeralds, each the size of the face of a small Cartier Tank watch, equal perhaps, to put it in squalid monetary terms, to a moderate
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payout. The rest of Deng's outfit was relatively understated: a skimpy white crocheted dress and some glittery strands that appeared to have been woven into her hair. A person needs some diversion after those tiresome trips to Leveson and it doesn't get more diverting than a Chanel couture show.

They don't scrimp on their budgets at Chanel. Last season the specially commissioned set was one of those business-class only planes - and that was just where the audience sat. This time the Grand Palais, that vast glass roofed belle époque explosion of a building by the Seine, had been converted into a conservatory, with wicker armchairs for the front row and multiple camellia bushes.

Unlike Monday's Dior show, where the walls were smothered in real flowers (the PRs claimed there were a million, always a suspiciously round figure, but almost plausible), Chanel's camellias were silk and in themselves highly covetable. More than one fashion editor was tempted to lift a few. The consensus however, was that filching the décor would be a bad look.

Chanel's couture line is, by all accounts (it's a privately owned company) booming. Was it the demure tastes of the Chinese that determined all those high necklines? Not that Chanel has even been a label for die hard vamps. Next winter Chanel's couture jackets, in patchwork pinks and greys are cut looser and longer and worn with sedate knee length skirts - or ankle length for evening. Sometimes they come with chiffon frills at the hem. Those hems are the only element that was light, at least in the daywear. This was a collection that zeroed in on the substantial: for evening, lovely pale peach organza dresses, strewn with silk camellias, were accompanied by thigh length sparkly tweed jackets or long bouclé waistcoats.

Finally a fashion house is providing warm cover-ups for evening. Was it the thought of those biting Beijing winters that did it? If it has any sense, the high street will rapidly follow suit. Perhaps they could have a go at copying Deng's bracelet too.